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Re: Has anyone ever switched from eight frame to ten frame equipment?

I used to run a number of eight frame hives. I finally got rid of all of that equipment and there is now none around at all. I like a certain amouint of standardization. Though beside3s the deeps which are primarily brood boxes I do have shallows and mediums.

Re: Has anyone ever switched from eight frame to ten frame equipment?

Me too. I started with a mix of 8 and 10 frame equipment. At some point I realized that this was slowing me down , so I needed to go one way or the other. 10 frame was and is the industry standard so the 8 frame stuff got sold off.

We ran double deeps for years but at another point in time decided to go with a deep and medium configuration, mainly because i did a lot of hand loading back then, and a deep/medium is a lot easier to load and stack!
That decision wasn't as easy, as there are tradeoffs on using 2 size boxes.

Re: Has anyone ever switched from eight frame to ten frame equipment?

I have both still, and still deciding which I like better. I do like having more frames per box and find the bees draw all frames well so far. A 10 frame deep full of honey is pretty heavy, even for me. It's not so much the weight but what you have to pick it up with. Finger tip hand holds make lifting that much weight difficult. Slats make my 8 frame set up pretty easy, but it's hard getting the 4th box on at times since my stand is 20" tall. When I take honey I remove frames though so it's not so bad, just when I'm inspecting late summer is when the heavy lifting is needed. I just have to keep in mind when comparing my hives the 8 framers even at 4 boxes (32 frames) is about equivalent to 3 box 10 framers and not a stronger colony per se.

Re: Has anyone ever switched from eight frame to ten frame equipment?

It would seem that the only reason for going from 8 to 10 is moving from a hobby to a business and looking for cost cutting measures. People who go from 10 to 8 are looking for weight advantages, maybe backing down off a business to a hobby. I am glad I started with 8.

Re: Has anyone ever switched from eight frame to ten frame equipment?

When I converted back to 10 frame from 8 frame, I also decided to use 10 frame shallow supers for my extracting supers. Those are much easier to handle than deeps, when full of honey. Also, it is rare that a 10 frame deep gets full of honey, as I use those for the two story brood nest.
Regards,
Steven

"If all you have is a hammer, the whole world is a nail." - A.H. Maslow

Re: Has anyone ever switched from eight frame to ten frame equipment?

StevenG,

Do you find shallows work better than mediums as well? I had the same conclusion where smaller units are more efficient for honey as far as getting frames filled and capped. I think my bees could've filled two meds rather than a partial deep just because it's two smaller units to fill. For the time of putting frames together and the ability to pull full frames of honey out of the brood area and move up I stuck with deeps for this year but I have mediums on standby and will use them next year. Of course, location is key and if the flow in my area was just a little longer or had a stronger fall flow it may not be an issue.